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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > General
Innovative forums that integrate citizen deliberation into policy making are revitalizing democracy in many places around the world. Yet controversy abounds over whether these forums ought to be seen as authentic sources of public opinion and how they should fit with existing political institutions. How can civic forums include less powerful citizens and ensure that their perspectives are heard on equal terms with more privileged citizens, officials, and policy experts? How can these fragile institutions communicate citizens' policy preferences effectively and legitimately to the rest of the political system? Deliberation, Democracy, and Civic Forums proposes creative solutions for improving equality and publicity, which are grounded in new theories about democratic deliberation, a careful review of research and practice in the field, and several original studies. This book speaks to scholars, practitioners, and sponsors of civic engagement, public management and consultation, and deliberative and participatory democracy.
Biometric identification and registration systems are being proposed by governments and businesses across the world. Surprisingly they are under most rapid, and systematic, development in countries in Africa and Asia. In this groundbreaking book, Keith Breckenridge traces how the origins of the systems being developed in places like India, Mexico, Nigeria and Ghana can be found in a century-long history of biometric government in South Africa, with the South African experience of centralized fingerprint identification unparalleled in its chronological depth and demographic scope. He shows how empire, and particularly the triangular relationship between India, the Witwatersrand and Britain, established the special South African obsession with biometric government, and shaped the international politics that developed around it for the length of the twentieth century. He also examines the political effects of biometric registration systems, revealing their consequences for the basic workings of the institutions of democracy and authoritarianism.
In spite of Edward Snowden's disclosures about government abuses of dragnet communication surveillance, the surveillance industry continues to expand around the world. Many people have become resigned to a world where they cannot have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The author looks at what can be done to rein in these powers and restructure how they are used beyond the limited and often ineffective reforms that have been attempted. Using southern Africa as a backdrop, and its liberation history, Jane Duncan examines what an anti-capitalist perspective on intelligence and security powers could look like. Are the police and intelligence agencies even needed, and if so, what should they do and why? What lessons can be learnt from how security was organised during the struggles for liberation in the region? Southern Africa is seeing thousands of people in the region taking to the streets in protests. In response, governments are scrambling to acquire surveillance technologies to monitor these new protest movements. Southern Africa faces no major terrorism threats at the moment, which should make it easier to develop clearer anti-surveillance campaigns than in Europe or the US. Yet, because of tactical and strategic ambivalence about security powers, movements often engage in limited calls for intelligence and policing reforms, and fail to provide an alternative vision for policing and intelligence. Surveillance and Intelligence in Southern Africa examines what that vision could look like.
This book is about power. The power wielded over others by absolute monarchs, tyrannical totalitarian regimes and military occupiers - and the power of the people who resist and deny their rulers' claims to that authority by whatever means. The extraordinary events in the Middle East in 2011 offered a vivid example of how non-violent demonstration can topple seemingly invincible rulers. Drawing on these dramatic events and parallel moments in the modern history of the Middle East, from the violent uprisings in Algeria against the French in the early twentieth century, to revolution in Iran in 1979, and the Palestinian intifada, the book considers the ways in which the people have united to unseat their oppressors and fight against the status quo to shape a better future. The book also probes the relationship between power and forms of resistance and how common experiences of violence and repression create new collective identities. Nowhere is this more strikingly exemplified than in the art of the Middle East, its posters and graffiti, and its provocative installations which are discussed in the concluding chapter. This brilliant, yet unsettling book affords a panoramic view of the twentieth and twenty-first century Middle East through occupation, oppression, and political resistance."
Sparked by the brutal police murder of George Floyd, the second wave of the #blacklivesmatter protest movement has surged across more than 100 US cities, spilling into Brazil, South Africa, Paris and London - to name a few of the primary sites of active resistance. This is a new movement, international in scope, with a disproportionately large section of young people - Black and white - using their own language and tactics to fundamentally challenge the whole range of racist institutions governing today’s globalised world. Matt Clement’s No Justice, No Police? The Politics of Protest and Social Change chronicles this movement as it continues to deepen and broaden.
Aeschines' successful prosecution against Timarchos of 346/5 BC is our best evidence for Athenian laws and moral attitudes concerning homosexuality, and for Athenians' moral expectations of their politicians. Though much discussed in recent years, the speech has never received a proper commentary. Nick Fisher provides a new translation, a fully detailed commentary, and an introduction which explores in depth all the political and sexual issues. It is fully accessible to those without knowledge of Greek.
The U.S. government's prime enemy in the War on Terror is not a shadowy mastermind dispatching suicide bombers. It is the informed American citizen. With Manufacturing Militarism, Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall detail how military propaganda has targeted Americans since 9/11. From the darkened cinema to the football field to the airport screening line, the U.S. government has purposefully inflated the actual threat of terrorism and the necessity of a proactive military response. This biased, incomplete, and misleading information contributes to a broader culture of fear and militarism that, far from keeping Americans safe, ultimately threatens the foundations of a free society. Applying a political economic approach to the incentives created by a democratic system with a massive national security state, Coyne and Hall delve into case studies from the War on Terror to show how propaganda operates in a democracy. As they vigilantly watch their carry-ons scanned at the airport despite nonexistent threats, or absorb glowing representations of the military from films, Americans are subject to propaganda that, Coyne and Hall argue, erodes government by citizen consent.
In spite of the expanding role of public participation in environmental decisionmaking, there has been little systematic examination of whether it has, to date, contributed toward better environmental management. Neither have there been extensive empirical studies to examine how participation processes can be made more effective. Democracy in Practice brings together, for the first time, the collected experience of 30 years of public involvement in environmental decisionmaking. Using data from 239 cases, the authors evaluate the success of public participation and the contextual and procedural factors that lead to it. Thomas Beierle and Jerry Cayford demonstrate that public participation has not only improved environmental policy, but it has also played an important educational role and has helped resolve the conflict and mistrust that often plague environmental issues. Among the authors' findings are that intensive "problem-solving" processes are most effective for achieving a broad set of social goals, and participant motivation and agency responsiveness are key factors for success. Democracy in Practice will be useful for a broad range of interests. For researchers, it assembles the most comprehensive data set on the practice of public participation, and presents a systematic typology and evaluation framework. For policymakers, political leaders, and citizens, it provides concrete advice about what to expect from public participation, and how it can be made more effective. Democracy in Practice concludes with a systematic guide for use by government agencies in their efforts to design successful public participation efforts.
Austria does not often make political headlines. It has at least twice in recent years: in 1986, when the "Waldheim Affair" was debated worldwide, and in 1999, when the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) under Joerg Haider received 27 percent of the vote in national elections. Established by former Nazis for former Nazis, the FPOe entered the mainstream of Austrian politics when it became part of a coalition government. This volume explores whether its rise is a uniquely Austrian phenomenon or corresponds to broader social and political changes in Europe. Parallels to Haider's party can be found in other European countries. Its anti-immigration agenda and rhetoric are similar to those of the French FN, the Belgian Vlaams Bloc, and the Italian Lega Nord. And its anti-European Union posture is similar to the sentiments of the "anti-Maastrich" wing of the British conservative party. However, European reaction to the FPOe's rise derives not only from its policies, but its linkage to past suspicions that the Austrians have not learned the lessons of history as had the Germans. The FPOe's success strengthened that impression. In response, 14 European Union governments downgraded their bilateral relations with the Austrian government to a purely technical level. Although the sanctions were lifted in September 2000, the spotlight is still very much on Austria, and concern about the FPOe remains high. This important volume contains eleven chapters by internationally prominent scholars from a broad spectrum of the social sciences. Its cross-disciplinary approach provides perspective on the Haider phenomenon, its rhetoric, and its impact on daily life in Austria. It also analyzes the influence of right-wing populism on politics, culture, and society, and its implications in Austria as well as elsewhere in Europe. "The Haider Phenomenon" will be of interest to historians, political scientists, those in European studies, and scholars in contemporary political extremism.
The debates between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina gave fateful utterance to the differing understandings of the nature of the American Union that had come to predominate in the North and the South, respectively, by 1830. To Webster the Union was the indivisible expression of one nation of people. To Hayne the Union was the voluntary compact among sovereign states. Each man spoke more or less for his section, and their classic expositions of their respective views framed the political conflicts that culminated at last in the secession of the Southern states and war between advocates of Union and champions of Confederacy. "The Webster-Hayne Debate" consists of speeches delivered in the United States Senate in January of 1830. By no means were Webster and Hayne the only Senators who engaged in debate "on the nature of the Union." Well over a score of the Senate's members spoke in response in sixty-five speeches all told, and these Senators did not merely echo either of the principals. The key speakers and viewpoints are included in "The Webster-Hayne Debate." The volume opens with Hayne's speech, which, as Herman Belz observes, turned debates on "the public lands" into "a clash between state sovereignty and national sovereignty, expounded as rival and irreconcilable theories of constitutional construction and the nature of the federal Union." Webster responded, Hayne retorted, and Webster concluded with an appeal to "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," in what later historians would deem to be "the most powerful and effective speech ever given in an American legislature." Other speeches in the volume are by Senators Thomas Hart Benton, John Rowan, William Smith, John M. Clayton, and Edward Livingston. Together, these speeches represent every major perspective on "the nature of the Union" in the early nineteenth century.Herman Belz is Professor of History at the University of Maryland, and the author most recently of "A Living Constitution or Fundamental Law?: American Constitutionalism in Historical Perspective and Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, " and "Equal Rights During the Civil War Era."
Since 1954, a discrete and select group of wealthy and powerful individuals have attended a private, yearly conference to discuss matters of their choosing. This group represents European and North American elites, as well as new talent and rising stars, from the worlds of politics, business, media, academia, the military and even royalty, and has included household names such as Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger and even Prince Philip. In recent years their number have featured David Cameron, Tony Blair, Angela Merkel, Bill Clinton and David Rockefeller. These are 'the Bilderbergers', named after the hotel where their secret gatherings were first hosted. What is their purpose, why do they meet, and what do they want? Investigative writer Gerhard Wisnewski explores the numerous claims of conspiracy that swirl around the group, revealing names of participants, their agendas and their goals. The scene opens in the sun-kissed seaside resort of Vouliagmeni, Greece, where Wisnewski attempts to observe and report on a Bilderberg conference. He soon attracts aggressive attention from police and undercover security, and it is made abundantly clear he is not welcome. From this rude introduction, Wisnewski works backwards to the founding of the Bilderbergers in 1954 by a shadowy Jesuit with secret service allegiances. Examining records and hidden reports, Wisnewski uncovers the true history of the organization, the alliances among key individuals and their common interests. Are the Bilderbergers puppet-masters, pulling strings behind the scenes? Are plans afoot to create a global government and a new political system? To what extent do they represent a clandestine super-government? This book offers a unique view into the workings of power, and the secret methods of those who seek to govern and control behind the scenes.
The Cold War ideological battle with universal aspirations has given way to a clash of cultures as the world concurrently moves toward globalization of economies and communications and balkanization through a clash of ethnic and cultural identities. Traditional liberal theory has confronted daunting challenges in coping with these changes and with recent developments such as the spread of postmodern thought, religious fundamentalism, and global terrorism. This book argues that a political and legal philosophy based on pluralism is best suited to confront the problems of the twenty-first century. Pointing out that monist theories such as liberalism have become inadequate and that relativism is dangerous, the book makes the case for pluralism from the standpoint of both theory and its applications. The book engages with thinkers, such as Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Rawls, Berlin, Dworkin, Habermas, and Derrida, and with several subjects that are at the center of current controversies, including equality, group rights, tolerance, secularism confronting religious revival, and political rights in the face of terrorism.
The Cold War ideological battle with universal aspirations has given way to a clash of cultures as the world concurrently moves toward globalization of economies and communications and balkanization through a clash of ethnic and cultural identities. Traditional liberal theory has confronted daunting challenges in coping with these changes and with recent developments such as the spread of postmodern thought, religious fundamentalism, and global terrorism. This book argues that a political and legal philosophy based on pluralism is best suited to confront the problems of the twenty-first century. Pointing out that monist theories such as liberalism have become inadequate and that relativism is dangerous, the book makes the case for pluralism from the standpoint of both theory and its applications. The book engages with thinkers, such as Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Rawls, Berlin, Dworkin, Habermas, and Derrida, and with several subjects that are at the center of current controversies, including equality, group rights, tolerance, secularism confronting religious revival, and political rights in the face of terrorism.
Presenting forty-four essays, Freedom Fighter is L. Ron Hubbard s long and unblinking look at precisely what plagues 21st century Earth the whys, wherefores, and what we can do about it. Included is Mr. Hubbard s incisive essay, Strong Voices in the Land.
The 1990s have seen an upsurge of interest and concern about the problem of political corruption. At both national and international levels major initiatives continue to be launched by both governmental and non-governmental agencies. A prominent concern has been with democracy and the development of a strong civil society. The papers here collected examine, in a range of national contexts, the relationship between democratization and the task of combating corruption. Do the two processes complement each other or are they ultimately in conflict?
The question of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election looms over his presidency. In particular, were the 78,000 voters who gave him an Electoral College victory affected by the Russian trolls and hackers? Trump has denied it. So too has Vladimir Putin. Others cast the answer as unknowable. Drawing on path-breaking work in which she and her colleagues isolated significant communication effects in the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, the eminent political communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson marshals the troll posts, unique polling data, analyses of how the press used the hacked content, and a synthesis of half a century of media effects research to argue that, although not certain, it is probable that the Russians helped elect the 45th president of the United States. In the process, Cyberwar tackles questions that include: How extensive was the troll messaging? What characteristics of the social media platforms did the Russians exploit? Why did the mainstream press rush the hacked content into the citizenrys newsfeeds? Was Clinton telling the truth when she alleged that the debate moderators distorted what she said in the leaked speeches? Did the Russian influence extend beyond social media and news to alter the behavior of FBI director James Comey? After detailing the ways in which the Russian efforts were abetted by the press, social media platforms, the candidates, party leaders, and a polarized public, Cyberwar closes with a warning: the country is ill-prepared to prevent a sequel.
This clandestine history of Operation Ajax to overthrow the Prime Minister of Iran was written for the US Central Intelligence Agency in March 1954 by Dr. Donald N. Wilber. It gives a unique insight into the extent to which the CIA and its British ally went in pursuit of their aim to remove Iran's elected head of government in 1952-53. It also includes many interesting parallels with contemporary developments in the Middle East. Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq was Prime Minister of Iran for just over two years, from April 1951 to August 1953, when he was removed from power in a complex plot prepared by the British and US intelligence agencies. Shortly after coming to office, Mossadeq enforced the Oil Nationalisation Act, which involved the expropriation of Anglo Iranian Oil Company's assets. In response, the British foreign secretary, Herbert Morrison, announced that the Mossadeq government would not be allowed to export any oil produced in the formerly British-controlled refinery at Abadan. In October 1952, Mossadeq declared Britain 'an enemy', and cut all diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. In November and December of that year, British intelligence officials suggested to American intelligence that he should be ousted. Near the end of April 1953, Donald N. Wilber, covert consultant to Near East and Africa Division of the CIA, was selected by the Division to go to Nicosia, and in close collaboration with the SIS (the British Secret Intelligence Service), draw up a plan for the overthrow of Mossadeq...
How does it feel to be in a high-speed car chase? What is it like to shoot someone? What do cops really think about the citizens they serve? Nearly everyone has wondered what it s like to be a police officer, but no civilian really understands what happens on the job. 400 Things Cops Know shows police work on the inside, from the viewpoint of the regular cop on the beat a profession that can range from rewarding to bizarre to terrifying, all within the course of an eight-hour shift. Written by veteran police sergeant Adam Plantinga, 400 Things Cops Know brings the reader into life the way cops experience it a life of danger, frustration, occasional triumph, and plenty of grindingly hard routine work. In a laconic, no-nonsense, dryly humorous style, Plantinga tells what he s learned from 13 years as a patrolman, from the everyday to the exotic how to know at a glance when a suspect is carrying a weapon or is going to attack, how to kick a door down, how to drive in a car chase without recklessly endangering the public, why you should always carry cigarettes, even if you don t smoke (offering a smoke is the best way to lure a suicide to safety), and what to do if you find a severed limb (don t put it on ice you need to keep it dry.) 400 Things Cops Know deglamorizes police work, showing the gritty, stressful, sometimes disgusting reality of life on patrol, from the possibility of infection criminals don t always practice good hygiene to the physical, psychological, and emotional toll of police work. Plantinga shows what cops experience of death, the legal system, violence, prostitution, drug use, the social causes and consequences of crime, alcoholism, and more. Sometimes heartbreaking and often hilarious, 400 Things Cops Know is an eye-opening revelation of what life on the beat is really all about."
Between 1963 and 2008 Kenya experienced systematic atrocities, economic crimes, ethnic violence, and the illegal taking of land. To come to terms with these historical injustices and gross violations of human rights, the Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) was established. From the perspective of an insider and academic expert, The Kenyan TJRC: An Outsider's View from the Inside reveals for the first time the debates and decisions made within the Commission, including how the Kenyan Commission became the first such commission to recommend that its Chair be prosecuted for gross violations of human rights. This book is one of the few insider accounts of a truth commission, and one of the few that reflects on the limitations and opportunities of such a commission. The Kenyan TJRC provides lessons and recommendations to those interested in addressing historical injustices through a truth commission process. The full copy of the Final Report of the Kenyan TJRC, along with other supporting documents, can be found at the following site: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/tjrc/
In this important new work in political and constitutional theory, Michael J. Perry elaborates and defends an account of the political morality of liberal democracy: the moral convictions and commitments that in a liberal democracy should govern decisions about what laws to enact and what policies to pursue. The fundamental questions addressed in this book concern (1) the grounding, (2) the content, (3) the implications for one or another moral controversy and (4) the judicial enforcement of the political morality of liberal democracy. The particular issues discussed include whether government may ban pre-viability abortion, whether government may refuse to extend the benefit of law to same-sex couples and what role religion should play in the politics and law of a liberal democracy.
Ten years after the land invasions of 2000, this book provides the first full account of the consequences of these dramatic events. This land reform overturned a century-old pattern of land use, one dominated by a small group of large-scale commercial farmers, many of whom were white. But what replaced it? This book challenges five myths through the examination of the field data from Masvingo province: Myth 1 Zimbabwean land reform has been a total failure Myth 2 The beneficiaries of Zimbabwean land reform have been largely political 'cronies' Myth 3 There is no investment in the new resettlements Myth 4 Agriculture is in complete ruins creating chronic food insecurity Myth 5 The rural economy has collapsed By challenging these myths, and suggesting alternative policy narratives, this book presents the story as it has been observed on the ground: warts and all. What comes through very strongly is the complexity, the differences, almost farm by farm: there is no single, simple story of the Zimbabwe land reform as sometimes assumed by press reports, political commentators, or indeed much academic study. Ian Scoones, Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, with co-authors Nelson Marongwe, Blasio Mavedzenge, Jacob Mahenehene, Felix Murimbarimba and Chrispen Sukume. Zimbabwe: Weaver Press Southern Africa: Jacana
On the Moon or Mars, where even the oxygen you breathe is made in a manufacturing process controlled by someone else, can you be free? In Interplanetary Liberty: Building Free Societies in the Cosmos, Charles S. Cockell argues that beyond Earth, space is especially tyranny-prone. Yet rather than consign humanity to a dim future of extraterrestrial despotisms, he suggests that the construction of free societies is possible using uniquely blended and reformulated classical liberal ideas for the space frontier. Considering politics, science, engineering, art, education, prisons, and other facets of society, this book lays out the general ethos and culture around which settlements might be constructed to secure the establishment and flourishing of freedom in the cosmos.
Inform yourself! Inform on your neighbor! Follow Special Agent Christian White on a cheerfully creepy tour of declassified government surveillance documents. White probes the redacted (blacked-out) texts of the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Programs, searching for the words erased in the name of the Freedom of Information Act. Learn fun techniques for the infiltration of activist groups, how to earn benefits and a pension as an agent provocateur, and how to, in the words of J. Edgar Hoover, "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize" your neighbors! These are our tax dollars at work, folks; we might as well enjoy it. This script has been performed by writer/activist L.M. Bogad in theatres, galleries, labor halls, and community centers for the past twelve years. The pamphlet also includes a preface by Guillermo Gomez-Pena, and a companion essay by Bogad about the history of domestic surveillance/harassment, and a "how to" for would-be performers of the script.
For too long a conventional wisdom has held sway, suggesting that poor people in poor countries are not supportive of democracy and that democracies will be sustained only after a certain average level of wealth has been achieved. Evidence from 24 diverse countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America examined in this volume shows how poor people do not value democracy any less than their richer counterparts. Their faith in democracy is as high as that of other citizens, and they participate in democratic activities as much as their richer counterparts. Democracy is not likely to be unstable or unwelcome simply because poverty is widespread. Political attitudes and participation levels are unaffected by relative wealth. Education, rather than income or wealth, makes for more committed and engaged democratic citizens. Investments in education will make a critical difference for stabilizing and strengthening democracy. |
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